The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1887-07-15
FROM DUNGEON TOPALACE
DR.. TALMAGE breaches At THE
HAMPTONS.

HRMf ONS.
Morbid and sickly Ideas OF Desth-The
Way Out Of This World Should be the
Most Cheerful Passage in All . Chris
tian's History.
THE HAMPToNs, July 10.-The Brooklyn
Tabernacle being closed for enlargement,
the Rev. r. Dewitt Talmage, d. D., pas
tor, spent his first Sabbath away from
his flock the present season at this sum.
mer home. His subject for today was,
"From Dungeon to Palace" and his text,
1.-THE time Of my departure is at hand'-
II Timothy Nv, 9.
The way out Of this world is so blocked
up with coffin and hearse, and under
takers spade and screwdriver, that the
Christian can hardly think as he ought Of
the most cheerful passage in all his his
tory. We hang black instead Of white
over the place where the good man gets
his last victory We stand weeping over
q heap of chains which the freed soul has
shaken Off, and we say: "Poor man!
What a pity 1t was he had to come
to this!'' Come to what? BY the time
the people have assembled at the obsequies
that man has been three days SO happy
that all the Joy of earth accumulated
would be wretehedness beside 1t, and he
might better weep over you because you
have to stay, than you weep over him be-
cause he has to 60. 1t is a fortunate
thing that good man does not have to
wait to see his own obsequies, they would
, be 80 discordant with his own experience.
II the Israelites should 60 back to Egypt
and mourn over the brick kilns they once
left, they would not be any more silly
than that Christian who should forsake
heaven and come down and mourn be-
cause he had to leave this world. Our
ideas of the Christians death are morbid
and sickly. We look upon it as dark
hole, in which man stumbles when his
breath gives out. This whole subject is
odorous with varnish and disinfectants,
instead of being sweet with mignOnette.
Paul, in my text, takes that great clod of
Q word, ''death," and throws it away,
and speaks of his ''departure''-a beauti-
full, bright, suggestive word, descriptive
of every Christians release.
Now, departure implies starting place
and place Of destination. When Paul
left this world what was the starting
points 1t was scene of great physical
distress. 1t was the Tullianum, the lower
L
top dungeon was bad enough, it having
no means of ingress or egress but through
an opening in the ton Through that the
prisoner was lowered, and through that
came all the food and air and light re-
ceived. 1t was terrible place, that
upper dungeon; but the Tullianum was
the lower dungeon, and that was still
more wretched, the only light and the
only air coming through the roof, and
that roof the floor of the upper dungeon.
That was Paul's last earthly residence.
1t was dungeon just six feet and half
high. 1t was a doleful place. 1t had the
chill OF long centuries of dampness 1t
was filthy with the long incarceration of
miserable wrctches. It was there that
Paul spent his last days on earth, and it
is there that see him today, in the fear
full dungeon, shivering, blue with the
cold, waiting for that old overcoat which
he had sent for up to Troas, and which
they had not yet sent down, notwithstand-
ing he had writte1t Tor 1t. .q...u.sssg :.
II some skillful5 Shrgeon should 60 into
that dungeon where Paul is incarcerated,
we might find out what are the prospects
of Paul's living through the rough inn
prisonment. In the first place, he is an
old man, only two years short of 70. At
warmth and the sunlight and the fresh
air, he is shut out from the sun. What
are those scars on his ankless Why those
were gotten when he was fast, his feet in
the stocks. Every time he turned the
flesh on his ankles started. What are
those scars on his back? You know he
was whipped five times, each time getting
thirty-nine strokes-195 bruises on the
back count themD made by the Jews
with rods of elmwood, each one of the 1876
strokes bringing the blood. Look at
Paul's face and look at his arms.
Where did he get those bruises?
/ think it was when he was struggling
ashore amidst the shivered timbers
of the shipwreck. see cash in Paul's
side Where did he get that? think he
got that in the tussle with highwaymen,
for he had been in peril of robbers and he
had money of his own. He was me-
chanic as well as an apostle, and think
the tents he made were as good a. his SER
mons.
There is a wanness about Paul's looks.
What makes that? think part of that
came from the fact that he was for
twenty-four hours on plank in the
Mediterranean sea, suffering terribly, be-
fore he was rescued; for he says posi-
lively: II was night and day in the
deep" Oh, worn out, emaciated old
man! surely you must be melancholy.
No constitution could endure this and be
cheerful But press my way through
the prison until I come up close to where
he is, and by the faint light that streams
through the opening I see on his face
supernatural joy, and bow before him,
and say: Gagged man, how can you
keep cheerful amidst all this gloom?' His
voice startles the darkness of the place as
he cries out: II am now ready to be
offered, and the time of my departure
is at hand" Hark! what is that shufiing
of feet in the upper dungeon Why, Paul
has an invitation to banquet, and he is
going to dine today with the king. Those
shutting feet are the feet of the exscu-
TONERS. They come, and they cry down
through the hole of the dungeon: Hurry
up, old man. Come now; get yourself
ready" Why, Paul was ready. He had
nothing to pack up. He had no baggage
to take. He had been ready a good while.
see him rising up, and Strengthening out
his stiffened limbs, and pushing back his
white hair from his creviced forehead, and
see him looking up through the hole in the